Centre for Automation and Robotics UPM-CSIC, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Sci Rep. 2022 Aug 26;12(1):14579. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-18536-7.
Many quadrupeds are capable of power efficient gaits, especially trot and gallop, thanks to their flexible trunk. The oscillations of the system that includes the backbone, the tendons and musculature, store and release elastic energy, helping a smooth deceleration and a fast acceleration of the hindquarters and forequarters, which improves the dynamics of running and its energy efficiency. Forelegs and hindlegs play a key role in generating the bending moment in the trunk. In this paper we present our studies aimed at modeling and reproducing such phenomena for efficient quadrupedal robot locomotion. We propose a model, called mass-mass-spring model, that overcomes the limitation of existing models, and demonstrate that it allows studying how the masses of the legs generate a flexing force that helps the natural bending of the trunk during gallop. We apply our model to six animals, that adopt two different galloping patterns (called transverse and rotatory), and compare their energy efficiency.
许多四足动物能够以高效的步态移动，尤其是小跑和疾驰，这要归功于它们灵活的躯干。包括脊椎、肌腱和肌肉在内的系统的振荡可以储存和释放弹性能量，帮助后腿和前腿平稳减速和快速加速，从而提高奔跑的动力学性能和能量效率。前腿和后腿在产生躯干弯矩方面起着关键作用。在本文中，我们介绍了我们的研究，旨在为高效的四足机器人运动建模和再现这些现象。我们提出了一个称为质量-质量-弹簧模型的模型，该模型克服了现有模型的局限性，并证明它可以研究腿部的质量如何产生弯曲力，从而帮助躯干在疾驰时自然弯曲。我们将我们的模型应用于六种动物，它们采用两种不同的疾驰模式（称为横向和旋转），并比较它们的能量效率。
